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Elsevier

Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Portfolio Theory

    With Application to Bank Asset Management
    • 1st Edition
    • Giorgio P. Szegö
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Portfolio Theory: With Application to Bank Asset Management provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of the management of bank assets and liabilities. This book presents the mean-variance approach to obtain many analytical results and a complete insight into the portfolio selection problem. Organized into 16 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the formalization of decision-making under uncertainty. This text then presents the construction and complete analysis of a Markowitz-type portfolio selection model. Other chapters consider the problems of portfolio selection in an inflationary or multicurrency environment. This book discusses as well an approximate technique for constructing a diagonal model at the cost of increasing by one the number of investments and the number of constraints. The final chapter deals with the study of the portfolio selection problem and to the analysis of the properties of the efficient set of the mean variance criterion. This book is a valuable resource for economists.

  • Alpacas, Sheep, and Men

    The Wool Export Economy and Regional Society in Southern Peru
    • 1st Edition
    • Benjamin S. Orlove
    • E. A. Hammel
    • English
    Alpacas, Sheep, and Men: The Wool Export Economy and Regional Society in Southern Peru investigates the response of the Sicuani region in southern Peru to the wool export economy and its consequent integration into the nation-state in the late nineteenth century. The book traces the economic and political conflicts engendered by the export economy, such as those between landlords and peasants in the countryside and landlords versus traders in town. It also examines how these conflicts shaped the metamorphosis of a closed, isolated, localized society into an open one and its incorporation into national politics as well as global economics. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with a review of the theories of modernization and dependency, followed by a discussion on the development of the world market for wool and the component elements of the wool economy of the entire southern Peru. Subsequent chapters focus on the regional society in more detail, with emphasis on the concept of region and the economic activities of different sectors; variation in forms of land tenure and labor relations in two provinces; the relations among herders, peasants, and artisans; and regional politics. The three major groups of artisans and workers in the region who use wool are considered, namely, urban furriers, textile mill workers, and rural weavers. The book concludes with an analysis of the fundamental importance of the wool export economy in the Sicuani region using the sectorial model. This monograph should be of interest to students and anthropologists.

  • The Unity of the Senses

    Interrelations Among the Modalities
    • 1st Edition
    • Lawrence E. Marks
    • Edward C. Carterette + 1 more
    • English
    Academic Press Series in Cognition and Perception: The Unity of the Senses: Interrelations Among the Modalities focuses on the perceptual processes, approaches, and methodologies involved in studies on the unity of the senses. The publication first elaborates on the doctrines of equivalent information, analogous sensory attributes and qualities, and common psychophysical properties. Discussions focus on discrimination, sensitivity, sound symbolism, intensity, brightness, and cross-modal perception of size, form, and space. The text then examines the doctrine of neural correspondences and sound symbolism in poetry, including sound and meaning, analogue and formal representation, vowel symbolism in poetry, coding perceptual information, coding sensory attributes, and evolution and development. The manuscript takes a look at synesthetic metaphor in poetry, as well as unity of the senses and synesthetic metaphor, warm and cool colors, synesthetic metaphors of odor and music, metaphorical imperative, and the music of Conrad Aiken. The publication is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in the unity of the senses.

  • Distributional Consequences of Direct Foreign Investment

    • 1st Edition
    • Robert H. Frank + 1 more
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Distributional Consequences of Direct Foreign Investment examines the net effect of direct foreign investment (DFI) on both U.S. employment demand in the short run and on the level and distribution of domestic income in the long run. Topics covered range from measurement of home-foreign substitution to the employment impact of DFI and the long-run distributional consequences of overseas investment. Short-run labor market adjustments to unemployment resulting from overseas production transfers are also discussed. Comprised of nine chapters, this volume begins with a survey of existing studies of the DFI phenomenon that critically evaluates the question of what firms would or could have done in the absence of a DFI alternative. The reader is then introduced to an alternative framework within which to estimate the degree of substitutability of home for foreign production. This framework consists of a microeconomic model of the multinational firm as it operates under two alternative policy regimes, one of which places no restrictions on the firm's activities and the second denies it the option of establishing a foreign production subsidiary. Input-output techniques, together with information on substitutability, are used to obtain estimates of the net employment impact of DFI. A probabilistic model of an industry labor market is also presented. In addition, the book analyzes the effect of technology transfer through licensing on the size and composition of domestic income. This monograph will be useful to practitioners who employ econometrics and mathematical economics.

  • Friends in School

    Patterns of Selection and Influence in Secondary Schools
    • 1st Edition
    • Joyce Levy Epstein + 1 more
    • English
    Friends in School: Patterns of Selection and Influence in Secondary Schools is a collection of research and commentaries that focuses on the connections between the social organization of schools and classrooms, the social processes of peer association, friendship selection, as well as the social development of students. The papers center around the topic on simultaneous influence of developmental and environmental factors on adolescent friendships. One paper examines the various theories of adolescent friendships: that differences exist between theories applied to, and theories generated from the experiences of different age groups. Another paper discusses the patterns of selection of friends and the characteristics of selected friends in high- and low-participatory schools. One paper explains the components of a contact theory and of cooperative learning methods in terms of their impact on intergroup relations. Another paper reviews sex differences in forming and maintaining friendships based on earlier studies made on the subject. The paper focuses on environmental and developmental points on how sex differences and school organization can interact on the student's adjustment to transition or growth. One paper notes that peer and friendship groups can be positive forces in the classroom to advance the goals of the teachers, students, and school, but the decision should depend on the teacher's knowledge of organizational structure, group processes, and on the desired outcome of the educational activity. The collection is suitable for teachers, child educators, school counselors, school administrators, psychologists and sociologists.

  • Microeconomics

    A Modern Treatment
    • 1st Edition
    • R. Shone
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Microeconomics: A Modern Treatment focuses on modern approaches to microeconomics. Alternative systems are discussed including input-output analysis as against neoclassical production theory. The theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory are also considered, along with linear and nonlinear theories of production, the theory of market demand and supply, and welfare economics. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to economic science and its propositions, as well as the importance of establishing a clearly defined set of postulates on which the whole edifice of economic knowledge rests. The discussion then turns to the theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory; neoclassical as opposed to modern consumer choice; production theory and the production set of the economy; and the theory of market demand and supply. Subsequent chapters deal with the theory of exchange and general equilibrium; welfare economics; and stability and introductory dynamics. This monograph will be of value to economists and those interested in microeconomics.

  • Nonhuman Primates and Medical Research

    • 1st Edition
    • Geoffrey H. Bourne
    • English
    Nonhuman Primates and Medical Research focuses on the contributions of nonhuman primates to biomedical research. The selection first elaborates on monkeys and yellow fever, cell cultures, and tuberculosis and bacterial infection. Discussions focus on bacterial diseases, tuberculosis, radiobiology, antibody formation and pharmacologic studies, cell-culture media and methods, the rhesus monkey and early history of yellow fever research, and monkeys and yellow fever in the future. The text then elaborates on virus research, models for investigation in parasitology, and primates as organ donors in transplantation studies in man. The manuscript examines the importance of monkeys for the study of malignant tumors in man; use of primates in cardiovascular research; and humanlike diseases in anthropoid apes. Topics include etiology of humanlike disease in anthropoid apes, atherosclerosis, historical aspects of primate research, selection of a suitable primate, and preeclampsia. The text also ponders on primate studies and human evolution and mental retardation. The selection is a valuable reference for researchers interested in the contributions of nonhuman primates to biomedical research.

  • The Hamiltonian Approach to Dynamic Economics

    • 1st Edition
    • David Cass + 1 more
    • English
    The Hamiltonian Approach to Dynamic Economics focuses on the application of the Hamiltonian approach to dynamic economics and attempts to provide some unification of the theory of heterogeneous capital. Emphasis is placed on the stability of long-run steady-state equilibrium in models of heterogeneous capital accumulation. Generalizations of the Samuelson-Scheinkman approach are also given. Moreover, conditions are sought on the geometry of the Hamiltonian function (that is, on static technology) that suffice to preserve under (not necessarily small) perturbation the basic properties of the Hamiltonian dynamical system. Comprised of eight essays, this book begins with an introduction to Hamiltonian dynamics in economics, followed by a discussion on optimal steady states of n-sector growth models when utility is discounted. Optimal growth and decentralized or descriptive growth models in both continuous and discrete time are treated as applications of Hamiltonian dynamics. Theproblem of optimal growth with zero discounting is considered, with emphasis on a steepness condition on the Hamiltonian function. The general problem of decentralized growth with instantaneously adjusted expectations about price changes is also analyzed, along with the global asymptotic stability of optimal control systems with applications to the theory of economic growth. This monograph will be of value to mathematicians and economists.

  • Arrow Impossibility Theorems

    • 1st Edition
    • Jerry S. Kelly
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Arrow Impossibility Theorems is a 10-chapter text that describes existing impossibility theorems. This book explores a number of formalizations of ethical constraints of the theorems. After an introduction to the framework and notation for Arrow impossibility theorems, this book goes on discussing some concepts and an apparatus of relations among those concepts which are important for the theorems. Other chapters present some impossibility results that serve to point out serious difficulties in some plausible escape routes from the theorems of earlier chapters. The final chapter describes important areas of research that have arisen in the collective choice field in the transition away from studying the conditions of Arrow's theorem alone to the totality of all impossibility theorems. This book is intended primarily for economists.

  • Reinforcement

    Behavioral Analyses
    • 1st Edition
    • R. M. Gilbert + 1 more
    • English
    Reinforcement: Behavioral Analyses covers the proceedings of the 1970 Symposium on Schedule-induced and Schedule-Dependent Phenomena, held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This symposium highlights theoretically inclined papers on reinforcement processes. This text contains 10 chapters and begins with a description of how behavior is induced by various environmental events, especially reinforcing events, as well as the relationship between control by inducing stimuli and reinforceability. The subsequent chapters deal with reinforcement phenomena in terms of preference relations and the conditioned emotional responses in terms of opposing motivational processes. These topics are followed by reviews of schedule-dependent effects of preaversive stimuli and the maintenance of behavior by apparent reinforcers that might be expected to punish, as well as the identification of critical variable that underlie the phenomenon. Other chapters examine the interactions between operant and responded conditioning processes. The final chapters outline the experiments on behavior stream whose hallmark is reinforcement if the absence of specified behavior. These chapters emphasize the analogy between the evolution of species and the modification of behavior. This book will be of value to behaviorists and psychologists.

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